The Two Keepers
by Animom
Summary: Although Rishid and Ishizu have never spoken of it, they understand what needs to be contained.


Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi and Konami, and is being used in this fanfiction for fan purposes only. No infringement or disrespect is intended by this fanfiction.

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Description: They have never spoken of it, but the two of them have always known what needed to be contained.

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**The Two Keepers**

_by Animom_

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The candles flicker in the stone chamber, the snap of their guttering flames just barely louder than the labored breathing of the child on the bed.

Next to him, his hands clasped, his face furrowed with guilt, the young man sits and watches.

A sound at the door. A girl, with a solemn weariness unexpected for her eleven years, is frowning at the boy. "I heard Father shouting at you. How could you let this happen?" She sets down a bowl of water, dips a cloth in it, and begins to clean the dried blood from the young man's face.

His expression is sullen but there is warmth, too, deep in his eyes. "Do you remember how it was? Before we became 'keepers?"

She stops, clutching the wet cloth, and glances at the bed.

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"You don't want to stay down here all day, do you Marik? Come outside with us! There's sunshine and pretty flowers!"

"No! Two keepers!"

His sister laughs. "Yes, we are, sweetheart. Rishid and I are your keepers, because we love you and will always keep you safe. And see," she lifts the lid of the basket, "I made a delicious lunch for us to eat. We can sit in the shade under the palm trees. Let's go now, before it gets too hot."

"NO! TWO KEEPERS!" The toddler points to himself, then runs up to his sister, slapping both hands on her stomach so hard Rishid has to grab her arm to keep her from falling over. "_You_ two keeper!" Marik pushes at Rishid's legs. "Two keeper too! Two keeper _stay inside!_"

At first they thought it was just a child's game, but when they started up the steps Marik threw himself on the ground, screaming and thrashing. Rishid and Ishizu tried frantically to calm him down before the noise woke Father. Only their promise to stay underground that day quieted him that day.

And the next. And the next.

Rishid thought that something might have scared Marik, an adder or scorpion or vulture, but he could coax nothing from his little brother, who now refused to do anything other than sit by a crack in the wall all day and crush every ant and beetle that wandered out.

Their Father, who doted on Marik from time to time, brushed off their concerns. "What harm will it do if he stays inside?" he said, his cowled head bowed low over the ancient book he was reading, his finger tracing a line of faded script. After a moment, when he noticed that Ishizu and Rishid were still standing patiently in the lamp-lit room, he said angrily, "He is the chosen one! Let him do as he likes!" As Rishid and Ishizu backed out of the room he muttered, "Don't bother me about it again." His lips moved soundlessly in prayer.

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"We're not like other families, are we?"

The young man does not answer.

"Will he die? I mean," she looks at the child on the bed, so innocent in his fitful sleep. "He'll recover from the snake's bite, won't he?" She suddenly looks frightened. "It _was_ an accident, wasn't it?"

The young man says, "Remember the mouse?"

She gasps, and shudders a little, and by this he knows that she remembers.

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"What do you have there, Marik?" Ishizu had noticed her little brother's furtive movements in the corner, and was startled at how the six-year-old glared over his shoulder at her, baring his teeth like an animal; but as soon as Rishid entered the room Marik's face cleared and he turned and stood. He held a mouse by the tail; the dangling creature twisted, frantic to get free.

"Oh," Ishizu said faintly, "you found a pet?"

"Will it run away?" Marik asked.

"I will find something to keep it in," Rishid said. "But you must promise to take care of it." He brought a large empty glass jar with a metal lid from the store room, helped Marik put the mouse inside, then took a knife and began to punch holes in the lid.

"What's that for?" Marik asked.

"Air. Your mouse will need air to breathe."

"What will you call – him?" Ishizu asked, looking at Rishid for confirmation. When Rishid shrugged, she added, "or her?"

"Her?" Marik looked puzzled.

"It could be a girl mouse," Ishizu explained.

"The mouse has no name," Marik said, shaking the jar a little, and smiling when tiny paws scrabbled at the glass. "Can I take it outside?"

As this was the first time in years that Marik had expressed any interest in leaving "the tomb," Ishizu smiled and nodded.

Rishid said, "Just make sure to keep it out of the sun. The sunshine will make it the inside of the jar very hot."

"Alright big brother," Marik said meekly. "I'll make sure to give it shadow."

"Shade," Ishizu corrected. "The word is _shade_."

Two days later, when Marik was sleeping, Ishizu slipped outside to forage for greens and figs and found the jar, half hidden and filled with sand. Her stomach clenched with dread, she unscrewed the lid and, trembling, poured the sand out. The pale grains flowed around and away from the tiny brown carcass without comment, but the sight pierced her heart like a dagger.

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"You asked how it happened. If the snakebite was an accident," the young man says.

She nods, suddenly fearful, wanting to tell him to stop, because being reminded that you have locked yourself into a cage with something that you can neither kill nor set free is worse than death.

"Yesterday – he made you a wreath of flowers. You were busy helping Father, and so I told him that you would not want him to interrupt you." He takes the damp cloth from her motionless fingers, dips it in the water, wrings it out, and carefully wipes the sheen of sweat from the child's face. "I could see he was angry about this, but I didn't think – "

He stops, lays the cloth down, then turns and hugs the girl suddenly, whispering so quietly that she must strain to hear him, "Promise me _never_ to take a basket from him unless you can see that it is empty? Even if it seems to contain nothing more than flowers he has picked for you? Promise me? Promise?"

The child in the bed stirs then, and opens his eyes. "Brother," he says softly. "Sister. Don't ever leave me."

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~ The end ~

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Author's notes**

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My first venture into horror, this was prompted by Round 6 of Season 8 of the FFnet Fanfiction Contest, Xenoshipping (Rishid and Ishizu). The scene with the mouse was part of my initial idea for my contest entry, a "love developing in the midst of duress" thing. Ultimately, though, I winnowed the romance from the horror: "Rosetta" became my contest entry (found as chapter 6 of the Season 8 Contest fic), and the rest went here.

About ages and canon events: Both the snake and the flower incident are presented in the anime as involving a young Marik. Although it's tough to say exactly how old he might be – I think he's clearly drawn younger when he's shown bringing Ishizu a flower wreath in the anime – I've decided that the snake incident happened when Malik was about 7 (making Rishid 17, and Ishizu 11). My explanation of it seems to contradict anime canon, but on the other hand it's plausible that Rishid would have invented the story that that Marik was bitten accidentally while playing underground soccer to placate Mr Ishtar (rather than telling him that Marik was trying to hide a snake in a basket of flowers in hopes that it would bite his sister.) The mouse incident is entirely non-canon, of course, but foreshadows what Yalik does to Mai.

I decided not to make it explicit in the story that what Marik is saying in the first flashback is not _two_ but _tomb. _Wordplay is more successful, I think, if one is not bludgeoned with it :p

Finally, I would have liked to have worked in the manga detail of what Marik does to Mr Ishtar's back "for Rishid" – talk about horror! – but I think ending the story where I have is better.

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(03) 26 Nov 2010 ~ some typos, a few tweaks.


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